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Forgive my clunkiness. I am re-learning how to blog.
Life continues, even if I am not commenting about it. Even now, I am so tired from a fucked-up sleep schedule that as I am typing this, I am thinking "Go to bed. Stop typing and go to bed." over and over in my head. But then another part of me feels guilty for the recent radio silence. So, we'll see if we can't hammer out a quit blog post.
Because things are happening. There are things to talk about. To tell you about. I don't know who still checks this blog anymore. But the people who used to check it, might find this of interest. In any case, it can serve as a Message In a Bottle for you, waiting until the next time that you stop around.
"Sickest Stories" continues it's mad march into it's second year. While you've been away, not seeing the show (no worries, we're all busy), our audiences have been slowly and steadily increasing. At a recent organizational meeting (did I mention that we meet once a month now to prep for shows and look at long-range plans for the show) our very talented graphic artist, Alan, pointed out that the show had about 10 or 15 people in the audience, when he saw it in October of last year. Every show since then, is averaging 40 or 48 people, per show. Part of the growth is that we're growing a little more liberal with our comp program. (We now comp potential guests and a friend and since there's no shortage of people wanting to do the show, that adds an additional 6 - 10 people per show.) Beyond those comps, though, we're averaging 25 - 30 paying customers per show. And we get very, very few improvisers in our house. So, that works out to 25 - 30 paying, actual theater-going audience members. Very exciting.
And they have good reason to come see our show. We've added pre-show videos now. Jim Burchill, our videographer, creates these insane 20 minute long montages of short-attention-span clips. One second, you're looking at a karate fight scene from a 70's kung fu film, then you see a flash of a rhinos erect penis and then, WHAMMO, you're looking at Frankenstein dancing with Go-Go girls. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Just random, sick, dirty images flashing on the screen with barely visible subliminal messages flashed at you from time to time. (The pre-show video is messing with you, encouraging you to go down on someone, anyone, before the night is up. Dirty, dirty, dirty.)
The guest lineup continues to be as eclectic and insane as you could possibly expect it to be. In addition to two regular cast members (my staff) you'll see 2 or 3 special guest panel members. Last month, we had a friend of the show, who happened to be on "The Apprentice" last season. Next month, we're looking to book a guy who finger-banged Paris Hilton (before she was Paris Hilton). I don't know if his story is true. That's for the audience to decide. I just want that story to be interesting. Looking ahead, I've got guest slots from our favorite Magician, a Briton who has the most interesting Thailand whore stories, a return from our resident nurse and ... it's too early to say it... but we might be booking a Major Celebrity Type to come in and do our show in April. Cross fingers for that one, kiddies! (I'll spoil it here first, if we actually manage to book this guy.)
We have a sponsor now, too. In exchange for a huge stack of comps (retail value - $480), we're getting t-shirts printed for the whole staff of the show. The sponsor is a new bar, opening up in Chicago. The comps will be prizes given out at their Tuesday Night Trashy Trivia contest. Because their trivia will be every Tuesday, we'll be giving out 16 comps, every month, to come see our monthly dirty, comedy show. I welcome all of those comp holders, as the show is currently booking 40 of the 65+ seats at the theater. Even if they don't pay me cold, hard cash, these new sponsor-guests, will fill out my crowd, giving my paying audience members a fuller house and a better show. In exchange for the comps, I get these kick ass staff t-shirts.
I guess I can go ahead and spill the design for the shirts. Alan and I came up with them. I really dig them.
This is the front of the t-shirt.
And this is the back.
Here's a close-up of the symbol on the front.
Our sponsor is ordering 8 of those. One for every guy on my crew, Me, Greg, Fuzzy, Alan, Jim, Mike and Harz. And one extra one for Edison Girard. Who did the original design for that chip logo. I never got to pay Edison for his design work. So, I thought I would give him Something Special to thank him for working on the show, way back in the spring of 2007. (Shh, don't tell him. He doesn't know that I am doing this for him.)
My plan is that these "Staff" shirts are limited editions. For staff only. The only way to get one is to work on the show. Or blow one of the guys in the bathroom of the Town Hall Pub to get his shirt from him. Work out your own deals.
In the future, if I do another run of shirts, they'll have some different design on them. The only way to get THIS shirt is to be working on the show, right now.
And if the sponsorship between this new bar and our show goes well and they ask for another batch of comps in three months, we can work out another deal, where they print up ten regular SFS shirts for me, in exchange for the comps and I sell those to the first ten, paying audience members. Same deal. 1 design only. Once those sell, we sell another design to the next 10 paying audience members. All profit, of course, goes to the shows festival kitty.
In addition to that bar, we're also considering sponsorship from a local sex shop. I am working out the particulars for how this would work. I'm considering asking them to pay for the printing of some new marketing materials for the show. (I sure would like an exterior vinyl banner for the theater on show nights) in exchange for product placement on our website, our programs and our podcast.
That's right. We will very soon have a podcast. Fuzzy and I taped the February show. We designed an aural soundscape for the show. How it would sound. How it would feel. We recorded some intro materials for the podcast and the first one should hit this weekend. The second one should hit Wednesday or Thursday of next week. Our goal is to take each show and break it up into two different 10 - 12 minute clips, record a little intro for it and then post them, every two weeks. Once we get a small library of podcasts, 6 to 8 of them, we want to distribute them through Itunes. (Initially, they'll only be on our website).
A podcast was always in the plan for the show. I'm a big podcast listener. I know how much I value the podcasts that actually make me laugh or think. I particularly like ones that post with regularity. Between Fuzzy and I, we think we can release our own promotional podcast every two weeks. The whole point of them, of course, is to direct attention (national attention) back to the show. Which sells tickets, which adds to the show's Festival Kitty!
Also, a podcast is a fun way for our guests to relive their time on the show. And share it with friends. It's a thing I can direct my friends to and say, "Here. Listen to this. I help produce this." So, I do have some pride in the creation of the podcast. Fingers are officially crossed that the final product sounds as good as I want it to.
One more thing, before I close this blog entry out. We've been approached by another theater to come produce the show in their theater, as early as July or August. Rent is comparable to our current rent. We would pick up significantly more seats and the theater will feature a full bar. The theater is in a high traffic area of town and could be a big, big move for us. At the same time that we might move there, we're considering going to a bi-weekly production schedule. Every other week. I certainly have enough guests for it. Audience interest will be the final arbiter of that decision, though. No sense in moving to any theater, if people won't come out and see you do your show. (The same theater is also asking for the BBR to come to them. I'll be passing along email addresses shortly. That show has it's own very smart set of producers to figure that out.)
Oh and did I mention that we're adding a guy in a Penis suit to talk up the show, outside before it begins? Mine will look just like the one below, except we want to put ours in a collar, a black bow-tie, white gloves and a top-hat. Call him, "Mr.Penis!"
Yeah, things are looking up for "The Sickest F***ing Stories I Ever Heard" in 2009.
Cheers,
Mr.B
PS. Next time, I'll update you on SOTD, which is moving forward too!
